The Mabry Family Blog

Snow, Hikes , Math references, and Rocks... Intrigued? No wait! Come Back!!!

2012-01-19T06:44:00.000-06:00

Yes it's true. Snow will slow down a good hike in a big way. I mean who can possibly go post-holing through hip deep snow and keep the same pace as one would during summer? Well, while this first statement is completely true, it's not what happened to us. We only had an epic amount of 4 inches of snow to deal with, but I'll maintain that our hike was slow-motion-ified even by this minute amount of white.

How could such a short and fun hike be so slow?

Well, there were a couple of important factors which I will outline in one of the most important mathematical equations seen in years. If you discount little ones like Relativity and Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem...

Children from the deep south + Snow = snail like progress and constant mischief

The sound of the kids yelling "POW POW Freshies!!!" echoed through the forest whenever they found untracked snow in a clearing. As to the Pow Pow Freshies joke, you would understand if you watched loads of stupid snowboarding shows featuring overpaid 19-year-olds skiing impossible lines off cliff faces and speaking some form of ski-bum slang that I find amusing.

The kids stopped as often as dogs on a walk. Picking up and throwing snow at each other was the real order of the day, so we were moving at about a mile an hour. (that's a generous speed estimate there...)

Here is Brenna with her patient face on. This was required because every few steps Aiden, without looking, would just chuck a snowball over his head toward anyone behind him. You had to be paying attention or you were going to have it on your head. He thought this was the funniest thing he had come up with...EVER.

We also discovered Aiden was putting the snowballs in his pockets to save them. He was soaked pretty quickly but seemed completely immune to the chill. There is something about kids and snow that makes them not notice temperature.

An example of the sneak attack snowball.

Notice that Ansley was not in any of the fight pictures. She wisely avoided her brothers to avoid becoming collateral damage.

As the snowball fights raged on, we were actually on a hike. The idea, at least, was that we were heading up to Arch Rock in the Smoky Mountain National Park.

The hike followed a stream up to the arch which had been carved out of the limestone and shale over millions of years. It was very different than the examples we had seen in Utah's sandstone. The rocks that made up the arch had a thin layered sedimentary look to it rather than looking like the arch was carved out of a more uniform piece of rock. Each layer was .5-1 inch thick and looked really jagged where softer stone had been eroded away leaving the harder layers exposed.

We had to cross the creek we were following a few times and the kids loved the log bridges that we had to use. I was just happy I didn't have to pluck a soggy child out of the creek...

We found the trail actually passed through the arch itself and we had to climb a wet and slippery series of stone steps to reach the other side. The arch is almost hidden from view by trees so there wasn't a good spot to actually get a photograph of the entire structure. Here is Ansley descending back through the arch.

It was a 3 mile hike and took us just under 3 hours to complete, and I think with all the smiles that it was exactly the right speed.

Christmas - New Years and SNOW!

2012-01-11T06:30:00.000-06:00

We did things a little differently this year...well not the part about being nearly killed by the avalanche of presents Christmas morning. In the line of thought from the rapidly approaching ski trip, I might recommend the adoption of a Christmas Present Mountain Avalanche Rating/Warning System for the next Christmas season. We wouldn't want anyone hurt or lost on such a festive occasion. We could even practice Rescue and Recovery techniques prior to Christmas morning just in case. You never know, and you just can't be too safe, Right?

Wow...now just look at that digression in all its brilliant glory.

Now for a few photos to move the story along...or perhaps this post is going to turn into a slideshow rather than having much of a "story". whatever...

Opa reading The Night Before Christmas to the eager and attention span challenged children...

The stack of presents was phenomenal... Hence my commentary on needing avalanche rescue training...

To keep the focus on the fact that it was Christmas and that we were there to celebrate the birth of Jesus, there was a Nativity play that the kids starred in. No theater nerves among this crowd...

And no...the Nativity didn't include Iron Man... No matter how much Aiden may have wanted it to...

We did things a little differently this year. Normally will gather for Christmas in Atlanta, and have a great time hanging around with the family and extended family. The unusual part was that we didn't head to play a ton of golf in Myrtle Beach or Florida. We opted to head for the mountains instead!

Admittedly, I was a bit unsure of going to try to find snow in the deep south in December. Normally, we bundle up with our heaviest coats for the two days that might be considered remotely winter-ish elsewhere in the country, so snow doesn't normally even cross our minds. We took off for Gatlinburg Tennessee at the base of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park (Which turned out to be a place that I am definitely going to return to for some summer hiking.)

Look out Floridian drivers on ice...there should have been some warning flares or something...

I kept laughing to myself about our retired "Floridians" on the trip when they encountered snow. Perhaps, I wasn't laughing to myself, because Brenna kept punching me in the shoulder saying, "Hey, That's my Dad!"

But we all know the story about when Bill put our van into orbit in Mexico on the speed bumps there,

so who knows what might have come to pass on that snowy road.

Yep, that joke is still funny...and I'm probably not getting invited back anytime soon!

Lo and behold the morning was cold and the peaks of the pass we had to cross had been hit with a storm that put down about 5 inches of snow the night before.

Who would have thought!

And you would have thought the kids had died and gone to heaven. We had to stop the car and got out to let the kids experience this interesting white stuff that they see so infrequently because they were trying to gnaw their way out through the car door panels, and my orthodontic bills are going to be high enough in the coming years. I didn't want to find out how much fixing the car upholstery would be on top of straightening their teeth too.

You can imagine that it took about exactly .000267 seconds before someone began chucking snowballs...

Here is Bryce trying to decide if the repercussions of pegging me with a snowball were worth it...he didn't think long before pounding me with it and running!

Par for the course. Family portrait with only one of the kids even remotely paying attention.

The house we stayed at was a cool place perched on the side of the mountain overlooking Gatlinburg. I could really see that we would have had some trouble getting there if the roads had iced at all, but we were OK there closer to town. The snow line was probably above 4 thousand feet, so the white coated the tops of the mountains around us, but not the roads we had to navigate.

The kids loved the fact they had to walk through snow that stayed on the porch to get to the hot tub. Livin' large...

I loved the view from the back porch and spent quite a bit of time just looking over the rail at the town and the Smokies.

I'll pause here in an effort to keep this somewhat short enough. I'll post up the account of our snowy hike out to Arch Rock next, but I needed to get writing on this before it faded from memory and I ran headlong into the rest of the year.

There is some real beauty in this country surprisingly close to my house...

I hope you all had a great holiday season!

Hey That Looks Sour!

2012-01-09T06:51:00.001-06:00

Bryce was at a friend's birthday party, and afterwards, as is the custom it seems these days, everyone got a goodie bag. This bag happened to have candy in it, and Bryce picked out one small green or blue candy and looked to me and said, "That looks sour! I should try it." My response was something like, "You bet you should, but let me get my camera out first."

Here, my friends are the results of that piece of candy represented in three photos. The progression is pretty funny.

Anticipation:

2: Oh! Now what have I done???

3: AAAAAAAAAAAAAKKKKK!

That's my boy. I'm sure he will eat more of those things in the future, but perhaps it will be a while if he sees these pictures.

Excited about Snow 2000 miles from here...

2011-12-16T12:39:00.000-06:00

The group is set and the trip is planned. I'm going to try my hand (or feet, hands and face in reality) at SnowBoarding at the end of January. After spending exactly zero time on snow skis in the past 18 years, and two days skidding down an ice sheet that passes for snow here in the Appalachian mountains prior to that, this should be interesting.

It sounds like, from the blogs and other reports, everyone out west is complaining that the snow hasn't come yet. That there is "barely anything" that is open. They certainly haven't spent time in the deep south. I even ran into a mountain biker at Oak Mountain this weekend that said he was taking his climbing gear out to Colorado on his trip in a couple of weeks because there wasn't any "serious" snow yet and he might get bored. (I guess he skis a fairly significant amount by that statement.)

At the end of the post is a video filmed yesterday December 15th from Whitefish, Montana where we will be going.

The resort is a pretty small one from what I can tell when compared to the Disneyland versions out in Utah, Colorado, and California, but small isn't bad. It means short lift lines, lower prices, and a laid back small town atmosphere with more locals vs. fighting millions on the slopes as I try to learn to stay upright on a board.

I like the idea of being out in nowhereville, which is probably why I like hiking/mountain biking in Utah so much.

Anyway, the early season complaints I hear prompted me to look at the SkiWhitefish.com website and I found this video.

If that's "early season" and not really great conditions, I'll be just fine with it. With 5 weeks more snow before we get there, this trip is going to really open my eyes to what can be done outdoors. I can remember seeing 8 inches of snow once in my life. They get an average of 300 inches a year out there. This is a place where you ski by a short bush and find that it was actually the top of a 30 foot tall pine.

Enjoy.

www.Skiwhitefish.com

The Leaves

2011-11-19T10:39:00.001-06:00

Every fall the trees around my house conspire to hide my lawn from me and to create a whole bunch of work. The question is how do I make this entertaining? Because it's not... No matter what your Dad told you about raking being good for you.

One thing about our years in Florida is that I never had to rake anything. The odd palm frond would fall, but that's about it. A single 10lb frond is much easier to manage when compared to an endless supply of biomass falling from the old oaks around our house.

Well, in an attempt to entertain myself, goof off with the kids, AND rake this year, I decided to make a video. We discovered the joys of back-yard bobsledding with a kids scooter toy a while back, and coupling that with a leaf pile seemed like a fine idea.

As a side note, me falling down in the leaves is not graceful, but hardly something that I wouldn't post. In slow-motion no less. Because, that's what this blog is about; entertaining my friends and family. Of course, the reality is that my audience is probably getting smaller after my inconsistent posting and silly videos.

Aiden-isms

2011-11-19T06:59:00.000-06:00

My youngest has been a wealth of laughs in his 4 years, and I wanted to put a post together to share some of his top comments.

Upon seeing a small tree with a cage around it to stop deer from eating it he came up to me and with a completely sincere face said, "Look Dad! They caught that one!" and then ran off to continue playing.

Riding in the car home from a camping trip. The kids were playing a spelling game. Aiden had to spell some simple word that has slipped my mind. His answer? K...uh...R...uh...ZERO!!! *Laugh's hysterically* Ah, I hope he gets a good education...

Holding an empty box of waffles up to his face and looking into it. (He does enjoy a good frozen waffle.) I said that looking into the empty box won't may any more appear in there, and he said, "That's ok. I'm invisible!!!"

The kids and I were scrambling down the stairs to the car so I could take them to school. (Just like every other day) We found that Aiden had already climbed in and buckled himself. His hair was sticking up in all directions, he was wearing his backpack (while being buckled) and still had on his fuzzy pajamas, but he was ready to go to the Big Kids school.

A friend gave us a box of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. (A friend that doesn't care about our dietary health it would seem, or was trying to save themselves from the call of the junk food.) er.... Either way, we had doughnuts and Aiden spotted them, grabbed the box, set it on the table in front of him, and asked, ever so politely, "Dad, can I ONLY have two?" before I had a chance to even say anything. Only two? Odd phrasing, but I guess it's better than just licking them all and saying, "Oops, I guess I'll just have to eat everything.

Parenting. It's good stuff

24 Hours of Georgia

2011-10-15T20:45:00.002-05:00

I was looking for something new and challenging to do, and I wanted it to involve the mountain bike. The challenge presented itself in the Oak Mountain parking lot one day when someone mentioned that they were doing a long endurance mountain bike race. The idea of seeing how many laps one can endure on a tough off road course seemed like a good idea, so I started mentioning the idea to other riders I know. Not too many takers it seemed. I wonder why?

As fall approached, there were a couple of other guys that decided to take on this challenge with me. Nathan, my partner in riding through Utah for the past couple of years, and Travis a friend through our team Steel City Cycling.

None of us had done anything quite like this, and we signed up and formulated a plan for the race.

1. Show up with bikes
2. Try to ride the bikes fast and keep them upright (preferably with us still on them...)
3. Try to make as many laps as physically possible without killing ourselves in 24 hours

Seemed as good a plan as any.

Travis had the ultra-camp-chair. Yep, I had the privilege of falling asleep in it several hours later.

I asked how many laps he was planning on doing on the P-Far (Penny Farthing) for those of you not well versed in bicycle history.

His comment was "What? Absolutely zero! I would go over the bars on the first root."

One of my regrets of the weekend was not asking for the chance to ride it... Next time.

As we headed over to the starting line and checking out the "vibe" of the place. People were nervous and some people were already having fun. I'm guessing the folks "having fun" were in support rather than riding the next 24 hours.

Nathan, got the nod for the first lap and donned the "ever so sought after" Steel City Team Jersey.

There was to be a line-up and start followed by a parade lap to let the field thin out a bit. If you have ever seen a mountain bike race or a motorcross race where everyone tries to get the Holeshot and be first into the woods or the first turn, you will understand why. It's a wreck fest, and why would the organizers let that happen when it was unnecessary? They didn't. It's a 24 hour race people. There will be time to pass other riders...

Needless to say, people still went out like their first lap was the end-all of their racing careers. (mine as well...dang that racing fever)

I have to say WOW that outfit matches...in a black and white photo that is...

Nathan running into the transition area after his first lap.

We all planned on rotating each lap to get a chance to memorize the course before nightfall and in case someone crashed out and couldn't continue. That way when the world was condensed down to a tunnel of battery powered light, we would have an even chance of not crashing ourselves.

We all turned in pretty fast first laps and then second laps...

This is me after the second lap...I'm trying not to look like I spent too much energy on the course already. It was only 4pm or so. Grrr...I still have power...I'm going to need it... *whew*

Nightfall came and the lamps came out, and we all went from goofy looking guys in Lycra to goofy looking guys in Lycra with big goony lamps on our heads. Fortunately, as is the norm for nighttime, it got really dark and we resumed believing we were cool (sort of) because nobody could see us except for the blindingly bright lamps on our helmets darting in and out of the trees. The trail was really getting dusty and in the lamp light this became really apparent. Clouds of dust would linger for minutes as riders went through and the lamps seemed to intensify the haze by reflecting off of each little microscopic bit in the air.

3 words: Lamps are good.

Travis found this out after pulling a double shift on the trail and having his battery run out mid way. He is a super-hero for finishing the lap using a lamp that would barely illuminate the trail for someone traveling at the speed of a milk-drunk toddler. Which he was not. He was effectively running blind. Impressive my friend.

Travis finished up his double loop at 2am. I then started off into the wee morning hours. It stunk. Period.

I rode two laps from 2 to 5am and thought I was going to die. Not from speed or crashing, but from old age before my aching muscles would get me back to the pit area. It was an odd time to be on a bike.

I noted a couple of things though. Mid-way through my laps, my mental state went kind of dark...

The cool/fun atmosphere of people milling around and having a good time while enjoying a bike race became something I was getting more and more annoyed by. I was tired and suffering through the early morning hours on the bike while they were still smiling and sitting by campfires with friends. I envied them, and I really disliked them at that point. Grrr...

Interestingly enough this nasty, "I'm not really having that much fun" mind-set went to one of kid like grins within the next 2 hours. I had kind of silly thoughts like, "This is like when Mom and Dad let me outside after bedtime with a flash-light and I get to explore stuff!" I must have been really tired...

The happier mindset was much better than grumbling and wishing the happy people along the trail had fleas in their sleeping bags...

I finished up my 24 mile slog just before dawn and crashed in the sleeping bag not really caring if we got any more laps in. Well, I did care, but I didn't have the energy to be the person to go and ride anymore for at lease a couple of hours.

At about 8 we all were up and about and found the energy to go and get two more laps in just before the finish. It's amazing what oatmeal, coffee and a couple of hours of sleep will do. Travis rolled out for a fast lap and we hoped that our math would work out to allow me to get one more lap in just before the 11am finish. If I was still on the course when 11am rolled around, the lap wouldn't count. We both cut large amounts of time off of the laps we had just done in the dark a few hours earlier and finished up with about 15 minutes to spare.

I ran into a policeman who oddly enough had a bike on his squad car. I asked if he had been working or racing, and he said "both". It turns out that we had passed him several times in the evening hours as he was stopping traffic for the racers the cross the road to the granite side of the course. Then he made a few loops with a team once his shift was over. That's a pretty good way to spend an evening when he had to work.

Side note: Riding wheelies past a police officer on a public road and not getting yelled at is fun. I know...really daring...ooooh...

The team goal of finishing the race without dying was a success -- I know we had some seriously lofty goals.

We weren't all that slow and ended up finishing up mid pack. There were some amazingly strong riders out there.

The race stats:

24 hours of race time
23rd place out of 35 teams.
16 laps total
192 miles covered
No serious crashes
Fun

Now that you have read my account of the events, which may have absolutely no reflection on my teammates' versions of the experience, but since they haven't sent me a write up, you get my awesome prose instead! Lucky lucky!

To add to the awesome content on this blog, you also get the chance to see the product of me running around with a GoPro camera and annoying my teammates with it!

Wheee!

Since YouTube and the UMG Music guys have decided to forego the free advertising for some classic rock music by The Who, I have loaded this up on Vimeo. YouTube also has the version that will probably be available on your mobile phone...I know there are so many of you so desperate to see my posts that you can hardly wait to see the HD video on the computer...

24 Hours from Brad on Vimeo.

The YouTube link HD if the embedded above doesn't work.

A Fuzzy New Family Member Arrives

2011-10-13T06:43:00.000-05:00

Mema's cat has come to live with us. It's a great cat and has integrated fairly well with the family. Well, it's integrated about as well as anyone that came from a sedate assisted living home to a household with 3 kids and wild activity all the time possibly could. It's amazing to me that it has ever come out from under the bed considering the shock of the change in environment.

I thought about something kind of funny when, I believe it was Joyce, mentioned a small detail about Kitty Poo (Mema picked the name not us).

This is actually Kitty Poo 2.

The cat has the same black and white markings as the original, and it never dawned on me that enough time had passed since the original Kitty Poo arrived as a kitten in Mema's living room that it had achieved old age and passed on thus requiring a "clone" Kitty Poo replacement.

What must have gone through Mema's mind when Kitty Poo 2 came home for the first time? To set the scene, I don't believe that Joyce told Mema that this was a new cat. Mema probably looked at it and noticed that it seemed much younger and active than it did before it went to the vet. "Hey, what's that vet treating those old cats with?

Anyway, the cat is a loved member of the household now, and hopefully it doesn't go insane from the constant jet engine equivalent noise levels and kids trying to find it and "pet" it at all hours.

There is also the fun little bit of retribution for all cat-dom. Kitty Poo is allergic to something in my house and reacts much the same way I have around cats for all my years of cat ownership. (No, I'm not all that bright I guess.) The cat's sneezing and watery eyes make me think...HA TAKE THAT FUZZBALL!

Six for Six

2011-10-11T23:18:00.001-05:00

HA! You guys thought I would be writing up the 24 Hours of Georgia Mountain Bike Race! Nope! I'm so far behind that you get a re-cap of what I wrote back in September and just now got around to publishing!

The Six Gap Century!

For the sixth year in a row, I headed up to Dahlonega Georgia to ride some of my favorite roads. The thing about having a nasty long ride with loads of steep mountain roads at the end of the season is that it gives me an excuse to ride more.

"I have to go out and ride or Six Gap is going to be more of a suffer-fest than normal!", I'll say.

"Aawww...he just HAS to go out and ride. Poooor baby." Brenna must be thinking.

It's true though, Six Gap is always painful. It's always hard.

And it's fun.

I've ridden this course in pouring rain more than once, searing 90+ degree heat that brought me to my knees in a 7+ hour dehydrated disaster, and then there are years like this year. Perfect in almost every way.

It was a fun weekend. I went up to the ride Saturday morning after spending Friday night camping with 200 noisy marshmallow and soda powered Cub Scouts. We didn't get away until 11am since I was attending a flag football game where Bryce made a couple of good plays and the team won for the first time this season.

I love the drama of football even if it's little kids. The joy on their faces when they won after a late game "pick-six" interception was contagious.

Brian Toone and I were going to carpool up to the ride and he was going to race the Saturday Pro-Am Criterium around downtown Dahlonega. This was the first year they have organized the Criterium races, and it was a big success from what I could tell. Normally, I will get up to town to register, get all the race numbers for the Sunday morning Six Gap ride, and then go watch College Football at the lake house, but this time there was racing to watch too, so we hung out. I did get to watch the Clemson v FSU game thanks to a massive screen TV in the commons for the North Georgia College just off the downtown race course. We hung out there and drank coffee until it was time for Brian to start his warmup and I went up to catch the Women's race before the Men's Pro-Am.

I feel like I'm a pretty strong rider until I watch these people race. It's amazing how fast and strong they are. They are just a different breed. It's fantastic to see...

Brian's race started at 8:30pm and went well for him. He won a couple of Primes, which are cash or prize awards given out during a race for being the first to cross the line on a designated lap, but there was a real powerhouse rider that ended up lapping the field for the overall win. That kid is going to be a decent pro rider someday if he keeps that up.

We got back to the lake house at around 11:30pm, and were back in the car at 5:30am. We didn't even get to catch up with Blake or Jess since we were there such a short time. Thanks for the beds guys!

The ride started in mid 50 degree dry weather with the promise of a sunny mid 70's day. The thousands of riders lined up excited for the effort and challenge...and some not so excited but resigned to completing the difficult task for whatever motivation they had.

Events like this are interesting because it brings out everyone from all walks of life. People trying to get in shape, Ultra-fit bike racers, People with a dream to be able to complete a distance like this just one time in their lives, People who know they can ride it but want to do better than last time. There is the social rider that will take 10 hours to finish, and the suffer enthusiasts that want to go as fast as they can the whole time. It's a great mix.

I had a goal of getting the 104 miles and 11,000 feet of climbing done in 6.5 hours of saddle time or better, so I probably fall into the suffer-enthusiast category mentioned above. I'm not really fast but I can keep it going for a fair distance.

Brian ready to roll out...

Brian and I shook hands, wished each other luck, and went our separate ways. In other words he went and lined up with the horses up front that expected to complete the course in less than 6 hours total...including any stops at the aid stations. An impressive goal no matter who you are.

The mass of riders began the slow roll-out after the gun went off and threaded its way past the local shops and off into the back roads of northern Georgia. I love sights and sounds of the ride, of any ride for that matter, with the bright jerseys flying by and the click and buzz of the bicycles.

At least I love that stuff at the beginning of the ride. Later on, when the world is filled with sore muscles and aching joints, I'm less inclined to say I love much of anything except getting off the bike.

I found a fast group and with their help flew through the first 20 miles, and the climb up Neels Gap came and went relatively easily. The sun was out and the arm warmers came off quickly. I stopped at the top for some food which wasn't really the plan, but as I had reached the top, an impatient 18-wheeler had passed me. I knew I could descend the gap at 40+ and the truck would do it at less than half that speed, but I would never find a gap long enough to pass it without killing myself. Waiting at the top for a few minutes was the prudent move to keep the downhill I had earned fun...and fast.

I was riding pretty well and made good time through the next two mountains. The twisting descent down Unicoi was as wonderful as ever and passing cars on a bicycle is fun every time.

The 4th mountain was the toughest challenge. Hogpen Gap. 7 miles of sheer nasty steep. This is the place where you begin to see people walking the bikes and "delivering the mail".

(i.e. weaving back and forth across the road from "mailbox to mailbox".)

I know my ride is going to go well or completely fall apart on that climb. Things went well. I got up the climb in 43 minutes. Note: Brian rode it in 32 minutes and yet didn't finish 1st on the climb...only 2nd. Sheesh...

Holy cow some people can go uphill fast. My combined Wolfpen gap and Hogpen gap times netted me 154th place out of 1000 riders, so I'll count my performance as a pretty good effort but nothing spectacular.

Looking down Unicoi Gap

I took off down Hogpen knowing that the ride was shaping up to be one of my faster times. I began to have thoughts of finishing in 6 hours or 6:15. I passed several people on my descent. It is so much fun to go 50+ on a bicycle. I was a little more reserved with the other riders and still managed 51 miles an hour on the long steep section. I hit 57 mph a few weeks earlier and decided then an there to never ride that fast on that road again. There is only so much the poor brakes on a bicycle can do if you miss a turn at speeds like that. It's funny how I can be confident and in complete control to make any and all the turns on that descent at 51 but just 6 mph faster makes the safety factor evaporate.

I topped Wolfpen gap, the long winding set of switchback roads feeling tired, but I still had gas in the tank. I had been making sure to stuff food in my mouth whenever I thought about it and to drink as much as possible on this ride. Normally, I start to feel a little gross after 80 miles, but since I had been eating already, it seemed like I had unlocked something. I was actually hungry and could process the food rather than having my body in complete revolt over it. I need to remember that in the future...

I had one more climb and the rolling hills back to the highschool from that point, and I really started to turn on the effort since I knew the ride was in the bag. Woody gap flew by and the final 15 mile stretch lay out in front. I kept the pace as high as I could get the body to go after 85 miles. I began to cramp up on the last 7 miles and couldn't get out of the saddle to power up hills. I was working with a strong rider and whenever the road pitched uphill we would stand to power over the rise. My quads would immediately lock into knots like someone hit me in the legs with a hammer.

I had the energy to push harder, but the body was beginning to fail me. I had to sit and down shift to get over the small steep hills. I watched as the potential goal for 6 hours ticked by and I couldn't go any faster.

6:15 passed by as well, but I did accomplish the fastest time I have done on the longer course version of Six gap. I left everything I had on the course. I couldn't have gone faster with what the day gave me, so I am happy. I was laid out on the pavement by the car and queazy with the effort for a few minutes, but the feeling didn't last too long. Brian rolled up (well rested looking) and we headed over to get some post ride food.

I asked how he did and he said he finished first. In my semi-functioning brain I thought he meant first up Hogpen Gap, but realized he meant the whole thing.

He had finished the ride with another rider in first place. 5 hours 7 minutes. I'm simply amazed at how fast that is.

In summary, the ride was great and we all had a good time. I can't ask for much more than that. I'm not sure if I'll ride it again. Which is always the case after riding that course. We will see come July or so if I feel like riding all out for a few months to get ready.

Have a great week everyone.

Space Camp

2011-08-21T22:49:00.000-05:00

Bryce finally got his birthday present, and he has been really patient in waiting for it. It was a trip to space camp in Huntsville, Alabama. The testing grounds and construction site for the Saturn V rocket that took us to the moon. The U.S. Space and Rocket Center has one of the Saturn V’s upright and on display out front and the scale is really astonishing. However did we get something so large, wildly explosive and complex to work at all? It’s beyond me and my feeble mathematical skills to comprehend what it took to design and get the vehicle off the ground.

Like they say… “Hey, it’s not like its Rocket Science. Oh wait…yes it is.”

Bryce had an absolute ball at the center. We were housed in bunk rooms that were designed so that they would fit into the Shuttle cargo bay to further give the sense of how small the spaces are that are required for space travel.

Each one of the tubes in the background had an entire floor of rooms in it.

We are so spoiled here on Earth with our expansive land and easy access to anything and everything. All space crews exist in are little tubes (even on the relatively massive ISS) and the overlap of items required to stay alive makes the entire layout look like something out of an episode of hoarders. Laptops, wires, clothes, food, several people, life support, and science equipment are everywhere. Actually it kind of looks like my office a bit. Hmmm…time to clean up perhaps.

There were several simulators that the astronauts used to learn how to move and operate various pieces of machinery in space, and we got to play on them. You can see them in action...poorly on my part...at the end of this post.

1/6^th chair: Since the human body only weighs 1/6^th it’s Earthly weight on the moon, somebody had to practice how to move around, and this is what they used. Even so, if you are used to a 170lb body here, it’s a bit awkward when you find yourself only weighing in at 28lbs. Every push with a foot launches you 4 feet in the air and spinning.

A highlight for me was that we got a chance to speak with Robert “Hoot” Gibson who may have the most impressive resume I have ever seen.

Aeronautical Engineer from Cal Poly, First in his class at the Naval Academy, Top Gun graduate, 14,000 hours of flight time in literally hundreds of different aircraft, 300+ carrier landings, years as a Navy Test pilot, and a 5 time shuttle astronaut. He was the pilot that docked with the Russian Mir and shook hands in the historic photograph with the Russian Astronaut through the airlock… Sheesh…

Perhaps this handshake will be equally impressive in years to come...

Mr. Gibson spoke with the group for an hour and answered every question the kids could come up with. It’s really wonderful to see brilliant people come and speak with kids and motivate them to work hard and study hard to achieve success. The message was vastly better than ESPN’s version of success, and for most of us, more probable.

Space Camp was loaded with smart people. I felt a touch out of my league, but Bryce and I fit in well personality wise. It’s a place that reveres and promotes unabashed geekdom. It was unusual. For instance, when kids were asked "What are you going to be?" they wouldn't just say a race car driver. They rattled off careers like a Cardio Vascular Surgeon. (and can pronounce it correctly) You may think that Ocho Cinco, or Dirk Nowitsky are cool, but they can’t do orbital mechanics…

Bryce couldn't wait to fly the MMU (Manned Maneuvering Unit) simulator. Which, by the way, is a nifty little hovercraft contraption that floats across the concrete floor. It was designed to teach shuttle astronauts how to fly the un-tethered propelled backpack. (Untethered = Scary at 17,500 mph with no air and that whole fiery death thing)

Oh, you've seen this picture before?

Guess who took the shot?

Yep, Capt. Robert Gibson on the STS-41...

In a shuttle Science Mission Specialist simulation. Bryce was the specialist...I was merely simulating special...

Bryce and I got to go through a few different space shuttle launch, mission and landing simulations, which were remarkably real. Covering ground control, checking pressures in tanks and O2 supplies, while paying attention to about 20 different indicators, switches and mission clocks was actually somewhat difficult. I can only imagine when one is dealing with actual launch and landing type conditions. My hat is off to the men and women that run the programs at NASA.

Our days at Space Camp were filled with activities. The day started at 6:30am with someone calling wake up from the door and we would work/play until 9:30 at night. It was very much the way the actual astronauts live with specific timetables, but the benefit of having late nights at the Camp was we had the run of the place for an hour or so, and this included the massive Saturn V building.

The museum had a full Saturn V rocket split into it's stages horizontally across several football fields of space. At the end of this monstrous room, was the payload. The Apollo capsule. The photograph above is the Apollo 16 capsule that was used a few months before I was born. April 1972. We pulled this amazing technological feat off multiple times (including our greatest failure) with a mere 166KB of computing power. Yep. Your phone sneezes out more than that when it re-boots...

As to the space program now that the Shuttle program is discontinued, we don’t have a goal anymore. Or more precisely, we don’t have an achievable goal. We as a species have reached the end of what we can do practically. We have learned so much and now are realizing that with our abilities to travel, we may have reached the achievable limits of humankind.

Going to Mars is an achievable goal, but with the 5 years away from the earth to make the flight there and back plus the time in orbit and on the surface, I have a feeling that this would be a one way mission. If we got the astronauts back, they would not live long due to radiation exposure in space, muscular atrophy, and bone decalcification in microgravity, never mind the mental impacts of being confined in a small tube for several years. Anything further out from where we are, when it comes to manned spaceflight, is impossible. And I mean impossible.

Even if we find the elusive engine that will propel us 90-95% of light speed we are talking at least hundreds of years of mere travel time in an environment in which it is impossible for us to survive. A one way trip in other words. We as a world do not have the money or desire, or need to do something like that. I say need loosely there. Of course we have a need to try because, by definition of what we know, our time on this planet is limited. We have a need to survive, but the attempt will most likely fail due to our frail bodies and our unfortunate lack of understanding. There is an idea that it may save the species at some point, but we would need many generations of people during the transportation segment of getting to a new world and then the difficulties of setting up a base there would merely extend the human race a short time rather than save it.

That fate coming true or not is up to the smarter kids of future generations that will follow well behind our short years on this planet. The most amazing and comforting thing to me is that, above and beyond all that we have achieved thus far, it has been proven over and over again, that with determination and need, we humans have made some formerly impossible things...possible.

Enjoy the video. Bryce's head is going to spin when he sees it... "Where are the light sabers!" he will say... Heh Heh...

The Fridge Zombie

2011-08-15T21:52:00.000-05:00

I rode the bike a lot this weekend. Thanks to my patient wife for sure.

It wasn't a lot in the terms of miles for some folks, so I'll be reminded by real cyclists that my workout time and miles spent riding was kind of "not really anything to write home about."

Really, the 110 miles and 7.5 hours of ride time over two days really isn't much more than using "training" as an excuse to go on a riding bender. Which is fun. It makes me stronger (allegedly), lighter (doubtful), but basically it's just plain old fun.

But there is a downside -- And that downside is pure evil.

When you come off a weekend cycling bender you are hungry. Your brain is telling you that you have a chance to drop some pounds because you are in such calorie debt that if you just eat normally you will shed pounds in the next few days.

But then eating normally becomes..."Well I'll have a snack too. Just not too much."

Then eating normally and snacking...some...awakens something awful. Especially when one is trying to lose some pounds. The Fridge Zombie. There is the metaphorical blood in the water. You have shown it food, and food it will have!

Over the past 24 hours, I have found myself taken over by the Calorie Monster or Fridge Zombie or whatever you would like to call it. I wander around the kitchen without any hint or hope of willpower. My brain is screaming, "Don't waste all that effort and not lose any weight after all that work!" While the body is standing zombie like with the pantry or fridge door open stuffing any and all food in to satisfy the need for calories.

Ah, there is nothing like the foolish regret of eating 5,000 calories in a day after burning less than that on the bike over the weekend. All that work undone (and probably then some) in one mighty collapse of willpower.

Ah, at least I had a diet coke with all that food...that'll take the curse right off of it...

Inland Surfing

2011-08-12T06:12:00.002-05:00

A short post and a video.

I have seen this trend around the lake in the past couple of years. Especially with the change in how every 15 year old kid on the lake seems to have an 80k wake board specific boat these days. These heavy boats cast off fantastic wakes.

Eventually someone came up with the idea to overload the boat with water, create the biggest wake possible and then surf it. There seems to always be some really large ski boat toiling along at an incredibly slow speed with a skier mere feet from the back ski platform.

NOTE: Do not do this behind anything other than an inboard boat! The pictures of hands and feet mangled by surfing behind an I\O (Inboard Outboard) are out there and horrible. Just google it if you need proof. If you see someone surfing behind an I/O boat, tell them to stop and let them ride your boat. Inboard boats have the propeller up under the hull and behind feet of wood and fiberglass where you can't hit it if you fall off.

Rick and I have pitched in on new toys to keep the Master Craft interesting to the old and young in the past. A couple years ago, we split possibly the most successful toy so far, the barefoot boom. This year we picked up on inland surfing, and I see why it's growing in popularity.

After some "engineering" to get 500 lbs of water in a water bed mattress in the ski well, and then a few plastic storage bins of at least 300lbs more on the sides, we loaded up the people. Kids, adults, kids acting adult, adults acting like kids, heck anyone we could find. The more weight and the more people to view the spectacle the better right?

Of course the fine ladies we had volunteer to go along actually detracted from the weight with their ethereal daintiness, but we couldn't say, "Nope, we need all the weight we can, you can't come because you make the boat lighter!" That would have been quite poor form on our part... ahem...

In the end, with all the water loaded, the boat pilot had to sit up on his knees to see over the bow since we were plowing through so aft heavy, and to get the surfer to match the speed of the boat we ran at about 2,000 rpm. The speedometer wouldn't even register it was so slow.

We struggled with learning the speeds and how to coast down the wave. Well, at least I did, but we had a boat load of fun surfing in a lake all weekend long.

It's not my best video edit, but the subject is really fun and we had fun filming it.

Inland Surfing, enjoy.

Beware the Land Shark

2011-07-31T16:02:00.002-05:00

Brenna was off watching some over hyped pop starlet in Atlanta last night and smartly stayed there overnight. I, on the other hand, was here holding down the fort. Which Brenna does a great job of handling every day, so her day/night out to catch a concert was well deserved.

We woke on Sunday morning. Well, I woke on Sunday, with Aiden poking me in the nose saying, "I want to play with you...after you get me a waffle 'cause I can't reach them." I looked at the clock.

6:13 a.m.

Ugh...

The rest of the kids woke eventually. By saying that, I mean that Bryce was up shortly after Aiden and Ansley dragged herself out of bed sometime around nine...uh...thirty. Yep, she is a carbon copy of her Mom as a teen...already.

Once they were all up and semi-functional, I made Sunday morning pancakes, and began thinking, what in the heck am I going to do with these little people? They were scarfing down the pancakes at an alarming pace, and I was quickly running out of time on my first plan for entertaining them. Food. I was going to be chased down with the same enthusiasm as they were eating breakfast, if I didn't come up with something fast.

I shouted over the breakfast time din. (Honestly, does anyone know how kids eat, shout, fight, hurt themselves while sitting in a simple chair, and breathe at the same time? I don't know, but there must be some scientific study on it by now...I'll google it later.)

Anyhoo...I shouted, let's play a game outside before it gets hot. Yes, I knew it was already too late for the hot part. I swear I saw a bird on the bird feeder burst into flame a moment before, but I had to do something though.

What do you want to do? Play knights, kings and pirates? "Yeeufff!" they replied with mouths full of jelly covered pancakes, and then Aiden said, "and there should be a shark!"

Ok...why not!

They gathered up their shoes, put on swimsuits and got some ideas together on what to do. Bryce said something about sliding away out of a castle on the zip line and crashing into a wall or something. I figured, what better than to smash stuff while on a zip line. Yes, I am a guy and assuredly my poor wife's 4th child. The next 20 minutes were spent finding capes, swords and a shark costume...naturally. We also spent a few minutes gathering up all the plastic blocks in the basement that we could load into the wagon in order to build a target...uh...castle.

When I saw how excited they were, I pulled out the GoPro. Nothing that silly and playful should go undocumented. Not with today's technology. Right?

Well whether you agree or not that we should, as a society, spend lots of our time making dumb movies with GoPro cameras, we did it anyway. And we had a blast!

Enjoy and happy Sunday!

A real JEM -- not apologizing for that one...

2011-07-21T17:30:00.001-05:00

Ah, the final Utah mountain bike video that you have been waiting for, or quietly wishing I would accidentally forget about editing...

I can't tell you how much footage that Nathan and I took over the course of the trip to Utah. The number of hours of video was a little over the top, but it has been loads of fun re-watching some of this stuff and trying my hand at editing together questionably interesting videos for others. I do like to share these videos because it lets other people see some of the views that we got to see. Bikes are great in the sense that they are quiet, you still can appreciate the views without the confinement of a car, you connect with the outdoors, and you can ride out into places that it would take many hours of walking and overnight camping to see. Plus, it's a heck of a fun hobby.

I wanted to ride this loop from the first day we got there, but the rains kept us away and the trail a mess, so I had to wait until the last day before we were going to head up to Bryce Canyon. Nathan opted to ride part of the ride with me, but wasn't in the mood to put up with the first half which included some grueling uphills to get to the top of the JEM trail. Hurricane Rim was the first segment and it skirted the edge of the Virgin river and offered up some great views. This ride also pointed out that I am totally directionally impaired. I had a map and the map said that the trail turned to the right. The trouble being that out in the wide open area, there were multiple jeep trails and other random single-track looking trails that were probably cut by animals walking through the tumbleweeds.

I ended up taking the wrong track and heading down into the canyon by the river at one point. At another offshoot, I found that I was off in no man's land trying to follow the rim of the canyon around. After about 45 minutes of riding, hiking, and fussing at myself liberally, a vulture flew close over my head. It wasn't just cruising, it was checking me out. I decided that was a sign to just find my way back to the original trail and head up a different direction. I was furious. I could still even see the house where we stayed out in the distance, but I couldn't get there because of a canyon in the way. Nor could I call Brenna and say my ride plans had changed because cell service in the middle of the desert is sketchy at best. I was officially not having any fun, so bailing out and just riding up part of the loop and coming back down seemed like the best way to salvage what was supposed to be a fun ride.

I rode up the JEM trail about a mile and magically found (drumroll please) the rest of the Hurricane Rim trail. I don't know if that didn't tick me off even more because the map didn't say that the Hurricane Rim and the JEM were the same trail for any length of time. I can't really blame the map. I'm a little thick headed sometimes and probably just didn't read the map right. Anyway, I was off again and had only wasted an hour wandering in the wilderness. A true Moses ride -- thank goodness it wasn't 40 years of wandering, even though it was beginning to feel like it.

I found Brenna and Nathan an hour later in a parking lot looking worried. I was after all, pretty late in my estimates of when I would meet them there. The Goulds climb was looming across the road where I would head up a steep road for quite a distance before linking up with the Goulds trail and then the top of the JEM. Nathan wisely opted to meet me on a side road where he didn't have to put up with the climb. I being a little thick headed, as I stated before, wanted to ride up the thing. The effort is cathartic in a way.

The ride was definitely better once I had a buddy with me. It meant we could at least laugh at each other if we managed to get lost again. The Goulds trail wound around the colorful reds, whites and even green looking sand/clay at the base of Gooseberry Mesa, and it was fun, but not the main event. We were ready for the 8 mile downhill where we had seen signs that bike traffic was one way, and that bikes achieved "dangerous speeds" so to be careful. That's a great advertisement for mountain biking if ever there was one. Besides, there was nobody around for miles and we could enjoy the expansive desert views whilst tearing around as fast as we could get the bikes to go.

That's enough typing about a subject that most of you couldn't care less about. I'll let the video show you more of the ride instead. I hooked my camera on facing backwards and it worked pretty well, but it worked its way loose on the way down, so the video gets a little floppy in places. I need to build a better mounting system, but the rear facing view was perfect. We would get footage of both of us as we went flying through the tumbleweeds.

Enjoy.

They named a canyon for Me? -- Bryce Canyon

2011-07-18T21:29:00.001-05:00

My son has been enamored with the place ever since he learned of it. "They named it after me?" he says. Perhaps not, but and after hiking around the entire place, I'll have to take him there someday.

I'm glad that he didn't go this time though. He would have passed out within the first 2 miles, and we hiked until even Brenna stated, "Not one more step. It's hot. I'm tired. You can get the car." as she found a heaven sent log bench after climbing back up to the rim of the canyon.

I know I need to wrap up my posts about this trip, and I can't seem to find time to edit together the last big a "Moses Ride"(i.e. seems like you are lost in the desert for 40 years) video. I'll get to that next, but for the sake of getting a story written, I'll jump out of order and write up Bryce Canyon.

Of all the strange geological formations we have seen out in Utah over the past 2 trips, this pretty much tops it. Arches national park was cool, but Bryce Canyon was something else. It's high elevations and alien rock forms "hoodoos" are a true miracle to see and explore. It's actually not a canyon, but a ridge where water has been eroding away the sides for millions of years dissolving the softer rock compounds away and leaving constantly changing spires and deep cuts in the rock. The hoodoos look like giant drip castles from the beach. Eventually the erosion will cut deeper into the high ridge and level the whole place out.

What struck me most was the color. Every hour as the sun would move the colors would be different. From a deep orange and white in the morning to pinks and tans in the afternoon. The shadow effects were remarkable and made for photographs that you couldn't really get wrong. Utah, makes my total hack photography skills better just by being there.

And with that, I see this post turning into one of my literarily (perhaps even literally) lazy posts and more into a slide show. Hopefully you will enjoy it just the same. Assuming that anyone even visits this link at all.

You enter Bryce Canyon NP from the rim and hike down into the base. The trails wind all over among the walls and spires. The place is actually named after a Mormon settler that famously mentioned that Bryce Canyon was "A heck of a place to lose a cow". Fortunately for us, we weren't looking for any large animals down there. The joys of a relaxing vacation... I'm also glad we were up at 10k feet because I could tell even at the mid day temperatures in late spring that for much of the summer the canyon would be dangerously hot.

I love the twisted gnarled nature of the junipers and pines on the slopes all over the canyon country in Utah. The environment is so harsh that they are just clinging to life on craggy hills, but they seem to keep growing just the same.

The rain hung over the far mountains, but never made it to us. You don't realize how small our horizons are here in the southeast until you get to a place like this. We are always surrounded by tall trees in the Appalachian and you can only see maybe 100-200 yards at any given time? Out west you can see for miles quite regularly. Not a bad thing, just an interesting observation. If you grew up out west and came to the southeast it might be a pretty claustrophobic place.

We got up early to catch the sunrise over the park, and realized that we didn't own enough clothing for the high altitude temperatures.

We were standing on the rim overlooking sunrise point (aptly named...) with the temperature reading 29 in the car as we pulled up to the park entrance. The interesting variation is that when we finished the day the car thermometer read 98 degrees. That's quite a change for one day.

The sun flashed above the horizon and the glow crept slowly down the rock faces as the sun cleared the mountains and mesas in the distance.

May 25th and there were mounds of snow 10 feet high still on the ground. I have no idea how much snow this area must have had just a month before.

We climbed to the top of a rock outcrop to look back at the tourist laden observation area. It does amaze me the amount of people that will drive everywhere in these parks and just hop out for a photo and drive on without exploring or even trying to hike around. They are really missing out.

Hiking shoes got a few miles on them during this trip.

One of the many arches that are found everywhere if you look for them.

Bryce Canyon, a place I highly recommend visiting if you ever make it out to Utah, and as I keep finding out, we could spend years in the state and not see everything that we would want to. I'll try to edit up the JEM / Hurricane Rim/ Goulds trail ride video for the next post.

Gooseberry Mesa - On and Off the Bike

2011-06-24T12:36:00.002-05:00

That poor rental car. There was a "graded road" that we had to drive to get to the top of the mesa. I'll assume that when one grades a road, one doesn't grade the parts that seem straight up over rocks. After finding the road that would get us up on top of Gooseberry Mesa at a non-descript turn off in Rockville, UT. (pop 247), the dirt road climbs 1,000 feet in a few miles on some pitches where we were questioning the ability of the little red Corolla loaded with 3 huge mountain bikes hanging from the trunk to make it. We were creeping like one of those rock crawling jeeps to keep from bottoming out the car and tearing parts off.

* Note: Not us -- this is just an example of what people do with their off road vehicles in Utah. Interesting passtime. I like the idea but wish they wouldn't tear the whole place up. It's a free country though, so go for it.

A couple of times people would come down the road past us in their huge pickups with lift packages and they would hang out the windows cheering our progress. It was slow. Really slow. Picking our way over rocks in a car that really only was designed to putter along on properly paved roads in suburbia.

The little car scraped and banged and bounced it's way up and up and up and eventually arrived at a parking lot where we gave it a rest as the sickly-sweet stink of an overworked motor wafted around.

We unloaded the bikes and decided to ride to the "practice loop". Brenna was going to try her hand at riding the petrified sand dunes, but this was a big mesa and she wisely decided she shouldn't ride some of the trails.

The practice loop, it turns out, wasn't easy.

I keep telling Brenna that guys dig chicks with bike related scrapes and bruises! Well...with those battle scars, she is Ms. USA!

After a few swoops up and down the sandstone, crashing and generally feeling like she was over her skill level, Brenna decided to let us go on and we would meet up later. There was enough to explore using some of the easier trails and the rutted dirt road down the middle of the mesa that she would be happily occupied without being terrified the whole time. Plus, up on the mesa top, our phones had service, so we weren't out of touch if something should happen! Having functioning phones was pretty unusual since we spent the week having to drive to Hurricane or Springdale to get a cell signal.

We did meet up again out on the North Rim trail at an overlook, after our own crashing entertainment. Oddly, women don't think guys with bike related scrapes and bruises are quite as cool as we think they are. They just think we are 8 year old idiots... Oh well...at least I married the attractively bruised Ms. USA. She is legally bound to hang out with me, even if I act like I'm 8 and ride bikes around all day.

Successfully avoiding the #1 reason why people fall off cliffs. Posing for pictures... The other reasons are listed in this post here.

Group photo - smile everyone!

The bands and layers in the mesa's edges would give you a weird vertigo sensation when you looked at them from a high point. At varying times this area has been an ocean (and at one point part of the gulf of Mexico...sort of). Layers of sediment that were put down with different chemical compositions create the colors in the rock.

Glad that Nathan joined me in getting more video than we can possibly watch. I know the cameras are goofy, but it allows me to waste time and share our rides with people from our point of view. Besides, we look goofy anyway, so the cameras on our heads don't impact a thing.

The elevation changes were dramatic, and worked us over pretty well. Especially with the distinctly thinner air than we are used to at home. I took this picture from the trail so you can see how much the trail would climb, descend, and twist around.

Riding home.

Nathan kept trying to bunny hop the cattle grate, and I kept missing the shot. The camera wouldn't fire fast enough when he jumped, but I figured I would show this great picture of the grate. Nathan cleared it and was just out of the shot to the right. It would certainly be more interesting with him in the picture, but after making him do wind sprints 2-3 times to try to capture him mid jump, I guess we need to show something for his efforts. Just imagine him there doing something X-games-awesome-super-cool in mid air in the middle of the photo...

A thunderstorm started popping lighting around us at the end of our ride, so we re-grouped and headed for home after spending about 6 hours riding. On the way down, Nathan decided to descend the "road" we came in on by bicycle vs praying the brakes wouldn't catch fire in the Toyota. He had more fun I'm sure, and even driving with the car in 1st gear the whole way down the road, the brakes smelled like they were hot enough to roast marshmallows over them. Very nasty tasting marshmallows, but roasted nonetheless.

I'll save you any more of my long winded descriptions of bike riding among the rocks and ancient sand dunes, and let the video give you an idea of how cool it is to ride in places like this.

Enjoy and have a great weekend! I'm heading to the beach and then to the lake! It's a tough life...I know...

Gooseberry Mesa from Brad on Vimeo.

Angel's Landing

2011-06-21T22:06:00.003-05:00

As the prophets of old would go to high places to confer with their various gods, they would have done well to climb up to this place.

Angels Landing.

The name extends from a story of a minister that said that the outcropping at the end of a fin of rock high above the canyon floor was so inaccessible that “only angels could land there.”

Fortunately for those of us who as yet are without wings and halos, the park service in Zion National Park found a path, and over years, built a path to get us - mere mortals - to this rocky outcrop.

We stopped for some early evening pictures at one of the lower outlooks of the trail not knowing if we would really have time to get to the top before the light faded.

We had been riding bikes all morning and into the afternoon, so we were somewhat tired, but didn’t want to waste a moment of time since we had only a finite number of days with which to enjoy the beauty of Zion.

The guide books called the hike “strenuous”, and that it would take us 4-5 hours to complete. We gauged that the sun would set around 7:30pm and that we would just have enough time to make the ascent before sunset.

We could then watch sunset, but would have to make our way back across the treacherous fin and onto the relative safety of the switchbacks before it became too dark to see. I threw a headlamp into my pack, just in case things went poorly and we didn’t make it down before it was pitch black.

Normally, guide books are very conservative in their assessments of how difficult or how long a hike can take. By a factor of 2 usually, but in this case they were right on. The switchbacks were steep and a good hard effort, but certainly not complicated. Nathan eschewed them and decided to climb straight up the retaining walls for the last 10 or so switchbacks. It looked like fun, but to keep from smashing my camera, I declined to follow suit.

Your Safety is Your Responsibility

At the top of the switchbacks we had gained about 1,000 feet of altitude and then the trail began to work its way out across the rocky fin. Some sections were pretty wide, 30-40 feet, but in many areas we found ourselves on sand covered stone with drops on either side of hundreds of feet if not sheer cliff faces to the canyon floor.

Falling from that height would give you a good 8-10 seconds of free-fall to think about things before impact. In light of the chance to make that plunge, I am strangely pleased to note that there were not guard rails and fences everywhere. There were only minimal chains mounted to the rock in some of the more exposed areas for you to hold onto if you needed.

The bus ride out to the trail head featured one of the best lines I have ever heard in our overprotective, anti-self-reliance, and pathetically litigious society. What amazed me was that it was coming from the government run park service. The narrative stated that this hike was dangerous, fatalities had occurred on the hike, and that “Your Safety is Your Responsibility.”

It was satisfying and shocking.

I was sure those words had been outlawed in the U.S.

Finally, A place where it is encouraged that you make your own decision.

For example: If the last part of a hike is too scary or you are un-fit, make your decision and don’t do it. There is more than enough to enjoy at anyone's particular skill level. Do what you can to enjoy the world, but be smart! The park service didn’t do the normal pseudo-parental thing and shut down the activity, or put fencing , an escalator and elevator access to these high places.

They gave good advice and let you, the visitor, make the right decision based on your ability. By the way, I am in favor of the bus system since the tens of thousands of cars that used to jam the single out and back road in Zion would ruin the experience. Now you can catch a bus every 7 minutes either direction and not have every moron’s stereo blaring, fight for parking and listen to engines revving during your exploration of the Park.

We reached the saddle of the fin before the final climb up to the landing and found a young lady sitting and enjoying the view.

You can see the young lady that I referred to...just above Brenna...who is just to the right of my thinning hair. @^$%^;*(*&;^%$#!!!!!!!!

After talking for a moment or two, she said she was scared even where she was and had declined to follow her companions to the top. She was content to enjoy the heights from right where she was and would wait for them to return.

Ah, an example of good decisions not determined by lawyers.

Up we went. And up it was. Over rocks and sand dusted stone where you had to really think about where to put your hands and feet. It was one notch off of really needing to know how to climb. What an experience!

Nathan ascending -- The blur is caused by moisture on the lens. The temperature change was dramatic as the sun was setting. Very cool effect on the shot.

Brenna working her way across the fin of rock.

Only a little exposure to her right. I see her enjoying things like this...

I am so in love.

Looking back from where the switchbacks end and we started to make our way through the rocks on the fin out to Angel's Landing.

When we reached the top we were rewarded with a view that was fitting with the name of the place. We stayed at the peak until the sandstone had turned from a red tinged tan to deep reds in the setting sun.

The view as the sun set and the shadows crept up the eastern cliffs...the silence of the space...the wind gently blowing...nothing else.

Heaven simply heaven...

The Utah crew!

Nathan

Finally the shadows on the canyon wall crept high enough to signal that we needed to get going lest we end up clambering down over the exposed sections of rock in the dark. I didn’t mind the idea of coming down the established trail of switchbacks in the dark, but I had no intention of using our lamp to guide us down the more narrow sections.

We were completely gassed after the hike. We made our way slowly down the switchbacks as the bug chasing bats flew disturbingly close to my headlamp, and subsequently my face, we drew up plans for the coming days.

Next: I’ll figure out how much time I can allocate to video editing. I may do the Goosebery Mesa story and video or a short post on climbing to the rim of Zion. i.e. The never ending trail to observation point.

I know that this series of posts has taken forever and I hope you are enjoying the stories as much as I am enjoying writing about the memories of visiting these places. There is more to my writing than Utah tourism for sure, and the 4th of July lake stories will be coming soon, but for now. You guys are stuck in the desert with me.

Brenna and the Church Rocks

2011-06-15T07:22:00.001-05:00

I had planned on a big lyrical post about the joy of bikes and how wonderful it is to do something you love to do and introduce others to it as well. But...sometimes ideas and events don't quite present themselves in a good form to write like that. Instead, I'll limit my rambling prose to at least say that I was really proud of Brenna for coming with us on the ride. I could tell she was nervous. Mostly because she told me as much. "Brad, I'm nervous about this ride." It's kinda hard to miss that. I did my best to tell her that this ride was really "mellow" and that she would have no problems with it. Everyone said it was pretty laid back and just a fun cruising through the desert with a little fun on slickrock.

We packed the 3 bikes on the back of the Corolla and rolled out into the "industrial section" of St. George. It seemed an odd place to find a cool trail, but after driving off the main road behind several warehouses, and then driving through a narrow tunnel under I-15, we did in fact find the trailhead. A few minutes later Monte and his lovely bride, Bonnie, drove up and we took off into the red sands and tumbleweeds.

Nathan and the rest of the group rode on ahead and I rode with Brenna giving her calming advice that she probably didn't want, hear, or even comprehend as the trail soon took a very steep and loose descent into a wash. She rode it perfectly, and I thought she would be happy, even though I was a little worried that she (and I) were realizing that this trail might have some obstacles that were a bit above her skill level.

This concern of mine was confirmed soon thereafter when she stated in no uncertain terms, "I'm almost too scared to enjoy this." Woops...In my defense, I did try to come up with a good ride for her, and it was good for the most part. There were just some scary sections for her to navigate. Go figure...it's Utah mountain biking.

She did ride well and the trail had a few surprises but generally these surprises were items that even the most experienced among us hiked down. There's nothing like a "mellow" Utah trail to make you think...what the heck is "intense"???

We rode through the sandy desert and along rock ledges until we reached what I'll guess was Church rocks. Large rounded red sandstone features reached up out of the tumbleweeds a fine tribute to the power of water and erosion at work on and around them. The formations were the size of a city block and probably a 100 feet high in places. It could have been bigger and higher, but we didn't explore the whole area of course. You could see holes and pockets where weaker sandstone was eroding faster than the rocks around it. There were some really steep sections that were great fun to ride down. One of the nice things about slickrock is that you have almost infinite traction on a bike. You ride at impossible angles and just stick...until, of course, you don't. Then sandstone really extracts some tolls on ones knees and elbows as you slide to the bottom of things. We got through the ride without an incident like last Nathan's slickrock incident last year in Moab. He looked like he had taken on a belt sander and lost.

Now that I think about that last sentence...honestly, when does one "take on" a belt sander and win? Secondly, would a ninja be able to win against an angry belt sander? A question for the ages there folks. You know you come to this blog for deep insights and questions like that...

We rode around lumps and ledges, steadily climbing up the rocks through a winding trail and found a slickrock playground with some drops and jumps to play on.

We hung out there until the storm we were watching develop over Zion looked like it was creeping our way. We bolted back for the safety of the cars with blurry gray columns of rain drenching the desert in the distance. Being up high on slickrock with bicycles isn't a good thing to do with lightning in the area.

A great afternoon was had, and I hope that Brenna will continue riding with me even though she knows the rule that even "mellow" sometimes is terrifying in Utah.

The video. It is becoming apparent that my YouTube and Vimeo channels are becoming somewhat one sided in video selections. It's not like I don't have a bunch of other stuff going on in life to share. I guess riding motorcycles and mountain bikes lend themselves to recording somewhat better.

Next: Angels Landing -- the hike we managed to do after riding all morning and into the afternoon. Why stay home and relax? We were on vacation and climbing to the top of sheer cliffs was right around the corner! What else do you do on vacation?

Soggy Soggy Zion

2011-06-03T23:14:00.001-05:00

Brenna spent the morning hiking around Emerald Pools in Zion National Park, a hike that I regret to have missed, but riding bikes took precedent and when on these trips to big places, you quickly realize that one cannot do it all without staying a month or more. I will make a point of getting Brenna to elaborate on her solo hike around the pools. Which, by the way, has the distinction of being the most dangerous hike in all of Zion (based on number of deaths).

Perhaps because it's less treacherous and thusly has more people...apparently drunk people...that drown trying to swim in the pools. As opposed to the insane heights of Observation point or Angel's landing, I find this "most dangerous" label hard to believe, but in a way...more people, means more morons, means more deaths.

Ah...the plight of humanity.

Nathan and I had been riding in dry sunny conditions to the west with Monte in the last post, but the nature of the mountains just to the north of us, ensconced with heavy ominous looking clouds, was calling. We all still decided that getting into Zion for some kind of a hike would be worth getting wet as long as there wasn’t lighting striking around us, so off we went in the Corolla.

Ok, so it wasn't THAT Toyota Corolla. It was the normal crappy underpowered rental version, but as I know cars and teenagers, the fancy one pictured here is probably just 50 pounds heavier than the stock version after all the aftermarket faring was installed and not any more powerful.

(Note to people who do this: You spent good money making your car heavier and slower. I hope the time spent dreaming of the Fast and Furious movies at the fry vat at McDonalds was worth it...) It's all image and not all much in the way of substance in the street car market most of the time. Like putting a fat spoiler on the back of a front wheel drive car.

*slaps forehead*

Ok, enough ranting, I drove my Pontiac Grand AM like a moron, so I have very little room to talk about boorish behavior in my teenage years. Back to the trip, which was vastly better than my delving into the memories of my high-school driving habits.

You can thank me later...

The clouds were trapped by the canyons and stuck there the whole day. You could see them gathering in my sunrise time lapse segment of the first mountain biking video here. The camera is pointed at the peaks of Zion Canyon and the thick clouds were just caught there and didn't make it out to the mesas where we rode the bikes.

You will have to imagine these two images stitched together since I lost my Photoshop abilities when I moved over to the Mac. I spent that money on riding bicycles and race entries, so it went for a good cause this year.

One thing I really noted in trying to photograph this area of the world. A wide angle lens is required most of the time. What I thought was wide angle wasn't even close to being able to capture the grand scale of places like this. It's honestly amazing.

We drove into the park and really couldn’t see the tops of the canyon walls around us as the clouds rolled and tumbled over the peaks a thousand feet above us. In the effort to delay getting out of the car and stumbling into the wet and cold, we opted to drive through an historic tunnel that was carved into the mountain side to get out of the canyon and head to higher altitudes. The Mount Carmel Tunnel was mined out of the rock starting in 1927 and allowed us to get to higher ground where there was a short hike to an overlook.

The tunnel had some holdups at either end because RV’s coming through have to drive right down the middle to avoid hitting the walls and ceiling of the tunnel. I guess that’s what you get when you design roads and tunnel projects before the invention of the monstrous vehicles that roam the western states during the vacation months. I may make fun of them, but I expect to enjoy being a bleary eyed parent hauling the kids around in one to some of these fantastic places in the not too distant future.

The other side of the tunnel provided an entirely different looking set of cliffs and geology than the interior of Zion. The ribbed sandstone domes of petrified sand dunes were everywhere dotted with twisted Juniper and Pines. This is a preserved part of the largest sand dune desert that the planet has probably ever seen, and some of the dunes were hundreds if not a thousand feet high to give you an idea of the scale.

We tired quickly of the car ride because looking out windows doesn’t give the connection to the natural scenery and open views that walking does, so we braved the rain and headed out to an overlook. There are normally a few waterfalls in the park, but today the entire place was teaming with them. We had to find ways off trail to get around several. The weather was in the low 50’s and we had to keep moving to stay warm since rain gear was something we had not counted on when coming to the desert.

The rainclouds were remarkable and the solitude of the place, since the less committed tourists were all cowering in their hotels watching TV or something, was an unusual experience. All you could hear was water falling and the wind. The scene when we reached the end of the trail was something that I would expect from a trip to Washington State or Oregon. Very unusual weather according to the locals I talked with. Especially for late May. It had even snowed the day before we got into Utah and the high ridge of Pine mountain (which is a massive Laccolith by the way) was completely covered. Yes, geology is cool...pfft if you don't like it. It's my blog.

Nathan looking up at the falls that would last only a brief time. One of the cool shots of the day.

Here we are trying to look warm and not get our feet soaked!

We were wet and getting cold at the overlook into the canyon, and to end the first and a quite successful day, we headed into Springdale to grab some food and plot out the next day’s activities.

Next: The Corolla goes rock crawling, we ride Gooseberry Mesa, and Brenna finds out that “mellow trails” in Utah are flippin’ hard on the shins. Yeeeooowwwch!!!

Riding the Sidewinder

2011-06-02T20:18:00.003-05:00

We have so much video. Perhaps too much? Nah! Thanks to Nathan joining me in looking really foolish with a helmet camera during all of our rides, we have hours of footage to pour through. But for you, my tens of loyal readers, I will get through it all and put together poorly filmed, shaky, and over produced videos for you to enjoy along with my witty prose.

The OTE - Hurricane

We headed with Monte over to the shop to pick up the bikes for the first day, and as we sorted out the shock pressures on these bikes the “Over the Edge Sports Mascot Pooch” flopped on our feet repeatedly looking to be scratched. That was a really cool dog and it almost makes me wish I had a pet. Almost…until I think of all the other responsibilities I have going and the urge passes…

The bikes were great and the staff at OTE got us set up and ready to go quickly. I’ll shamelessly plug them for any of your trips out to Fruita, CO or Hurricane, UT.

The rain clouds were roiling over the mesas and canyons in Zion, so we headed the other (much dryer) direction to go ride the bikes and ended up at the Santa Clara River Preserve trail system near St. George. The Sidewinder trail actually is part of a pretty large network of trails that run all over the area, and from what I could tell, we covered almost all of them including illusion and the precipice trails.

The Sidewinder trail is an out-and-back that snakes around the hills and has a turn-around loop at the end before you descend back down at high speed giving it a look of a snake with a head when seen from above, hence the name. It’s a pretty mellow trail and was a great warm-up for the week. There were some technical sections with some rocks and a brief bit of cliff exposure, but not too much complicated stuff which was good since we were getting used to our bikes and what they would do.

The views were great and we learned an essential bit of trivia as we were riding around and yakking about everything from geology, to politics, to the merits of bicycles and not crashing. Heady stuff folks…

That riveting piece of trivia?

The top three reasons tourists and hikers fall off high cliffs:

Posing for Pictures on the cliff edge
Acting like they are about to fall off the cliff
Urinating off cliffs – in the dark. (I think I’m close enough to the edge…maybe one more step…)

(I’m going to guess that intoxication is also commonly involved in both #2 and #3)

I have no idea if this list is truly accurate because I’m lazy and don’t want to Google it, but they sound pretty dang plausible, so there you have it. It’s gospel now.

My advice on this pressing matter you ask? Sure, I’ll be happy to tell you as I know some of you really wanted to read my words of wisdom.

First, look at where the edge is, gauge how windy it is and where good footing would be among other conditions, before posing for photographs.

Second, don’t be a drunken idiot (or just a plain old normal one for that matter) near cliff edges by wildly flailing your arms around and yelling “AAAAaaaaaaahhhhh!” to try to get a giggle out of your fellow hikers or that cute blond Park Ranger with braids you just saw. (It's not like the Sasquatch or the chupacabra, she does really exist... No, of course I don't have pictures...)

Oh, I digressed a little there. To the point of acting like you are falling, your friends won’t be impressed, and she really doesn’t care. Plus, being all mangled and dead at the bottom of the cliff isn’t a good look for a first date anyway.

Finally, if you feel the urge after an evening of imbibing around the campfire…well…whatever…do what you want in that case…Darwin’s theories do have some validity.

We would yell out the appropriate number whenever we saw someone near a precipice throughout the rest of the week, and quite fortunately, I don’t recall yelling #3 at anyone. Mainly I because I wasn’t looking for people urinating in the dark. That would be really weird, and I was tired from all the riding.

Some fine examples of posing on high rock outcrops without dying. A cool set of surroundings to ride bikes if I do say so myself. We had a ball.

To close this knowledge packed post, I present you with the first of several videos from the trip. Riding the Sidewinder, enjoy.

Filmed entirely with GoPro cameras including the time lapse shots at the opening.

Next post, Zion National Park does its best impression of the Pacific Northwest rain forests. Albeit with Desert Juniper and Pinyon Pine Trees and really big rocks.

Atlanta to Vegas to Utah & Parts Beyond...

2011-06-01T21:09:00.003-05:00

Brenna and I parted ways with the kids and headed for our second trip to the canyons of Utah. I must express my sincere gratitude to the family members that helped watch the kids and allowed us to escape for the week. It is great to have family that is willing to help out like that. Nathan, our compatriot for the second time on these trips, was already in Vegas trying his best not to lose all his bicycle rental money. We were going to get the rental car and pick him up on the strip and head north from there.

Last year’s Moab trip had stuck with me as some of the best fun I have had, but we didn’t want to go and do the same things again even though we couldn’t have possibly covered all the trails there even with another week of mountain biking.

Instead, we decided to head to the southern part of Utah where the Virgin River has carved an awe inspiring canyon through the sandstone creating Zion National Park, and there is also mesa-top mountain biking everywhere you look. The trip would be less focused on riding the bikes than the Moab trip, but riding mountain bikes would still be a major part of the activities. (I know, that’s a big surprise…) Hiking the Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon would make up for the rest of the adventures.

The brown line is the path of the tornado from Tuscaloosa in the distance
to Birmingham hidden by the engine.

After flying over the awful scar that a tornado left on the land between Tuscaloosa and home, I forced Brenna to watch mountain bike videos on the plane until we began the bumpy descent into Vegas and the flight attendant gave me a sour look for still having my iPhone out.

(Perhaps she was really just trying to save Brenna from having to watch one more teenage guy all hopped up on Red Bull jump over some impossible ledge on a zillion dollar mountain bike.)

As a side note, the Red Bull Rampage was filmed across the street from the house where we stayed.

Either way, we landed in Vegas shortly.

I was noting the mountains around the city since I had never been there before, and Brenna was noting that most people on the plane would probably never even see the mountains once they were in the clutches of the glittering wallet vacuum that is the Vegas strip. To wit, she remarked that I was pretty weird, and well, she would know. We’ve been married for 13 years and hanging out together constantly for 16 years now. I know she absolutely loves me since, for the second year in a row, she has spent our anniversary not in some cushy vacation spot with fruity drinks, but out in the dirt and grit of the deserts scaring herself on a bicycle and climbing steep winding trails.

30 second timed exposure and a camping headlamp...

We rented a Jeep last year and never really used it as an off road vehicle, so we rented a bright red Toyota Corolla this time and planned on putting a bike rack on it. We ended up really using it as an off-road vehicle and put it through some spots that it was never designed to go. As weak as the engine was with 85 octane gas, and a 35 mph headwind heading through the Great Basin, we could have used some of Toyota’s unfortunate trademark “Unintended Acceleration”.

Storms over the Great Basin as we head north to Utah.

We entered AZ and were almost immediately out of it again.
Unlike most illegal aliens...

I had planned on stopping a couple of hours into the drive from Vegas to Hurricane, Utah to look for “The Crack”.

Ok, That's enough now... Quit giggling... Yes you... You know who you are...

It is a split in a large rock expanse that you can squeeze and contort your body through, and once we found it, it was loads of fun. Brenna looked a little uncertain, as we descended into this narrow slot, but she put on her happy face and did it anyway. For someone who looked pensive at the outset, she looked like she was having some good fun by the end of it.

Nathan on the other hand, was quite at home, and immediately bounded up the walls and clamored over everything he could find.

Nathan and his impression of a flag.
--Note this is hard to do--

I wasn’t too far off that level of behavior…except I’m old now.

I don't act all that old most of the time though... Just ask Brenna...

http://www.vrbo.com/298759

The house in Hurricane was a cool little apartment that we stocked with food to save some cash. Below is a panorama that you can scroll around to see the house and the mesa’s surrounding the house.

The mesa top behind the house was restricted since it is one of the two supersonic sled test facilities in the world. It’s used for ejection seat tests. I was told that the sled can achieve Mach 3, and I’m positive I would never want to eject at faster than the speed of sound much less 3 times that. A test would certainly be neat to see – from a safe distance.

Heavenly I tell you, simply heavenly. Which is good, since the world was Raptured while we were out there and unfortunately, we were all left behind…along with everyone else.

Oh…nevermind then. Perhaps Rev. Harold had read his version of the King James incorrectly.

We got settled in and chatted with Monte, the owner of the place, and got some good ideas of what and where to go while we were out there. If you are ever inclined to go out to Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon, give a thought to staying with Monte and Bonnie. They are great people and have a great place to make home base.

Next up – Riding the sidewinder and we discover that Zion has actually been transported to the Pacific Northwest for the day.

Counting the Days -- Utah 2011

2011-05-10T17:41:00.000-05:00

7 Days, 7 days, 7 days -- It echos around in my head. I find it hard to think about other obviously more important things as we prep for the second trip to Utah. There are tons of things to do and take care of before we catch the flight back out into the canyon lands. Kids, clean the house, make sure the basement doesn't flood, packing, don't forget helmets...

But it's far more fun to think of the rides on mountain bikes with rocks and dust flying, avoiding cactus and cliff edges. Then there will be the days spent hiking, exploring narrow canyons, and climbing to high places. The image below is one of the mountain biking destinations we will get to explore called Gooseberry Mesa, and it's going to be hard to not just stop and stare.

Pretty much the same thing happened last year in Moab. Amazing rides where every turn or obstacle got better than the last would also just come to a halt from because the view wasn't something to just ride by in the pursuit of more singletrack.

This year we will be in Virgin, Utah with a staggering population of 394 people. We picked this place because of a really great rental house that we came across and the proximity to bike trails (out the back door) and Zion National Park which is about 20-30 minutes away.

View Larger Map

The St. George/Hurricane/Springdale Utah, area is quickly becoming another major destination for mountain biking. I am seriously excited by the prospects of riding these bikes in desolate places that would take days to reach by foot but can be navigated on a bike in hours. It's like Christmas every day when you get to ride bikes in country this beautiful.

People I have talked to have mentioned that riding in this area is great and "much less crowded" than Moab.

Uhmmm...I remember rides in Moab in the peak season where I didn't see another soul and was basically alone in the wilderness. I can't imagine a place being "much less crowded" than that. Yeah, the slickrock trail in Moab was packed, but it's a classic ride that is a mile out of town practically, and packed was relative to seeing nobody else for miles.

Our bikes for this adventure rented from the good people at Over the Edge Sports in Hurricane Utah.

Rocky Mountain Altitude 29r

Felt compulsion 26

Mmmm...two wheeled goodness.

We are actually planning on a couple days by foot only on this trip in Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon, which is a "heck" of a place to lose a cow I hear.

What I'm not riding bikes every day until I fall over...repeatedly? Yeah, I know...totally insane idea, right?

The National Park Service, in all their wisdom, doesn't allow bikes for one, secondly, there are too many places that are just impossible to get to by bike. I'll post pictures of as much as possible when we are out there through various forms of time-wasting social media, and once we are back, you can count on endless gushing and long winded tangents into the history and geology on this blog. I just can't not babble on about the place.

Hey, in another life I may have been on the Utah tourist board...who knows.

I love this sign. Don't be that guy.

Apparently the guy below didn't look at the aforementioned sign.

If you see a picture of me pulling a downhill / freeride stunt like that, trust that I didn't get gutsy and go for it after downing a 6 pack of Red Bull. Something has gone HORRIBLY horribly wrong, and please make sure to chisel something nice about me on my headstone.

Examples:

1. A Devoted Husband, Father, and Friend who liked to bike A LOT...
2. An all around awesome guy that died waaaay too soon.

Or depending on how you actually feel about me:

3. He wasn't too much of a dork...often.

Heck, what do I care is on my headstone? I'm the dead one in that scenario. Have fun with it people...

Seriously, we will be having as much fun as we can without hurting ourselves. I can't promise that we come away without bruises, lingering cactus thorns and less skin, but it is an adventure and not a cruise on a ship to some sanitized tourist trap. (That's not a knock on the Cozumel trip...the SCUBA diving there is awesome and my friends lost skin and shattered iPhones renting scooters in Mexico... That takes some serious guts to ride scooters there. I'm still in awe of your display of badassery.)

This trip is going to be great including all the unplanned stuff that we can't possibly think of in our preparatory lists of stuff to do.

I promise Mom, we won't forget our helmets...

Barber Track Day 2011

2011-04-22T11:55:00.000-05:00

I had a group of friends come up to visit Alabama for a weekend of motorcycle riding a few weeks ago. I'm not sure how the "a few weeks ago" part happened, but time is flying by it seems. I can't hope to write an account of all the fun we had that weekend, but I did want to write up something about my experience.

The purpose of the visit (aside from hanging out and constantly needling each other) was to venture out to Barber Motorsports Park and watch the guys do a Track Day. Rick has been pestering me for quite some time to come out and ride, and I have always said no due to quite a number of reasons, but I was more than happy to go and watch and try to video some of the spectacle.

The guys rolled up with an enormous Ford F-250,000,000 Diesel and an even more enormous trailer loaded with track bikes. Shortly followed by a Mini Cooper...LOL. What a combo of vehicles to have arrive late at night...

Saturday was to be spent at the track, and the day was beautiful. I rode the VFR over to the track with cameras and all for the days festivities. Little did I know that I was going to get an offer I couldn't refuse. As the rest of the gang was going through tech (to make sure stuff like oil and parts weren't going to fall of their bikes at high speeds), I talked with one of the guys from NESBA. The NESBA group was putting on the track day and there happened to be a free "intro" class where I would be able to follow a control rider ( in essence the track referees/coaches) around Barber's track. I figured Brenna wouldn't totally kill me for doing that since it would be controlled and just a fun loop or two around the track. I signed up and sprinted back up to the pits to tape up and get my bike to tech. Steve helped me strip off the mirrors, zip tie the rear foot pegs and tape up the bike in record time. Seriously, we did it so fast an F1 pit crew would be impressed. I bummed a track suit and helmet just to get through the inspection process and got the bike cleared with only a couple of minutes to spare.

Once I went to the morning rider meeting to discuss track rules, I found that my controlled lap would actually be 3 full track sessions of 20 minutes each. I was going to get a half day of riding for free! Now the nerves set in, and my fear of keeping the bike upright, and more importantly my body un-broken, in a situation where I had very little experience was in the forefront of my mind.

When my group was announced over the P.A., I donned my borrowed track suit and helmet, fired up the bike, and rolled to meet up with the control rider in the pit lane. He was really a good guy, and there were a few other novice riders that were going to be towed around behind him. When it was finally our time to go, we eased on out onto the track... I almost turned on the signal to merge. I guess proper driving habits die hard. We eased around a few turns at what felt like a snails pace and then the roar of engines behind could be heard. The rest of the group had already caught us and we began to turn up the pace.

The first session was a study in sensory overload. There was just too much to pay attention to and too much going on, so it was nerve wracking to the point of almost not being fun. It seemed like an endless parade of shifting weight, turning, wild accelerations, hard braking, and bikes flying all around. (The sensation of overload reminded me of my first 10 second delay while learning to skydive all those years ago.)

The second session was better, and by the third and final session, I let the control rider go. Note that I said I let him go. That is code for I'm slow, and with the VFR being the least powerful bike on the track, I couldn't keep up. That sounds funny since my bike is hardly slow or lacking power by most standards. It's just that all the true sport bikes like CBR's, Ducati's, Suzuki's, and whatever else that came roaring around were so strong that I couldn't even get close to their accelerations in the straights, so I got passed a lot. I would catch up with people in the turns, but in the straights with my throttle pinned, they would just pull away with an unearthly whine punctuated by shifting gears.

One of the main rules for the novice division, was that we could absolutely not pass in the turns, only in the straights, which made for quite a few traffic jams in the turns as I caught up and then couldn't get by any one when the road straightened out again. As wild and out of control as my discription seems, everyone was really quite safe in their passes, and the only issues I saw were people that missed a turn and ran off into the grass unharmed. Out of all the groups out on the track over the weekend, I think the worst that happened was a few scratched up bikes and some bruises, which is a testament to how controlled the environment was considering the speeds some of these guys were able to run.

The third and last session was much more fun as I knew the course, understood what people were doing (i.e. passing me regularly) and knew what my VFR would do in turns a little better. I had several laps where there wasn't much traffic. I finally felt like I could get into a rhythm, accelerate out of turns, and confidently enter turns without feeling like I was going to get mowed down from behind by another rider. I finally saw how the sport could be really fun. I also put on the GoPro for the final laps, and I'm glad I did. The first two sessions wouldn't have been fun to watch anyway, and I didn't want to think about anything other than the bike, the course, and traffic, so I didn't carry the camera on purpose.

I have to thank Rick, Steve, and Dave for heckling me and getting me to sign up for the experience, and most importantly, I need to thank Brenna for not killing me for doing it. I do feel like I "got away with it" that day, so I'm sure I won't be back on the track, but I wouldn't trade the experience of the perfect day and the beautiful track for anything.

The final session edited for your viewing enjoyment.

A new Bike and an old Rant...

2011-04-17T21:21:00.001-05:00

Most of you have probably seen the bike through my other post, or listened to me rave about it well before I even got around to buying it. I did finally get it done this past week, and after quite a number of years of fits and starts about buying a new mountain bike, I got it to the house and then took it to the trails as fast as I could possibly get it there.

I videoed the inaugural ride...which most of you have also already witnessed via some social meida outlet.

I will take this moment to:

1. test out embedding a Vimeo video into this blog.
2. rant about digital rights management in my stupid videos.

deep breath aaaannd... Rant away!

YouTube, where I have posted most of my stupid video concoctions blocked my mountain bike video from the whole planet. Yes! I guess I have enough viewership to warrant their censorship from the whole of the 7 friggin' billion people that live on this little blue/white/brown-ish orb. The most hits a video of mine has ever garnered was about 100 hits and it didn't even have music! We aren't talking millions, or hundreds of thousands or really even multiple hundreds of hits.

Now, it's not YouTube's fault. They got sued so now they are gun-shy of people using copyrighted material, so I won't really rip on them. It's the music recording industry that I'm ranting about. I bought a song legally through iTunes. I put it on a dumb video that about 30 people will watch in it's entire viewing history, and 10 of those hits will be me...'cause the bike is awesome and I need to see it sometimes when I'm not home...

The video has my credits and a link to iTunes and Amazon where you can buy the song if you liked it. Those links for purchasing the song were even put there automatically by YouTube aside from my crediting the artist and naming them on my own. That comes down to FREE ADVERTISING for the record company and the band! Very few people on the planet will be intentionally playing YouTube over and over again instead of buying a song that will play on their iPods, so that can't be the reason for blocking the video. I just don't understand the concept of not allowing small time people to use music they have legally paid for and credited to the artist. If I were getting millions of hits on a video, or if I was somehow profiting from the playing of their song or my video with their music, I can start to get the idea that I probably should have asked permission over and above buying the music, but for 30-50 views on a video? Come on people... Free Advertising...where probably 1 person would go and buy the song after watching my admittedly awesome video...

Anyway, as a result, I am trying out Vimeo, where the company doesn't mess with their users. Probably because they don't have the traffic a YouTube does...yet.

Enjoy. The trail and the new bike are awesome...even if I might have used purchased music as a lame soundtrack.

Ride of the Niner from Brad on Vimeo.

Springtime and Luck

2011-04-17T20:46:00.001-05:00

I guess you make your own luck with pictures sometimes, or have luck pointed out to you. Hey, whatever works...

I had spent the night out in the tent the night after spending most of the previous night listening to little girls giggle incessantly at each other at my daughter's 7th birthday party sleepover. Ugh...

Honestly, who would sacrifice yet another night's sleep by hanging out in a tent with the kids in 40 degree temperatures? Well...I won't say, but I know him fairly well.

The sleep deprived Sunday went pretty well though. Mass was beautiful on Palm Sunday, and then we went home to work in the yard. After a while of hacking brush and not accomplishing much, Brenna called me over to point out a rose. The only rose -- On the only rose bush we have ever had. She planted it for me years ago when we had started our first spring together in Alabama.

For the record, neither of us have squat for knowledge of how to grow roses or really anything of the plant-ish persuasion. Through experience I can say that by some fluke gift we have found that we more than effectively grow, and subsequently catch, poison ivy in our very own back yard! Yay! Uh...*scratching*...whatever...

Anyway, the rose was magnificent. It's sometimes amazing what you find buried in the overgrown mess of a back yard come spring.

Spring Rose in the Back Yard

I wasn't the only tired puppy after this weekend of riding bikes, camping, birthday partying, and goofing off in the yard. Aiden likes hammocks as much as I do apparently.

Yay Hammocks and Naptime!!!